Crash Test Dummies: Here's What The Obesity Epidemic Is Doing To Them

Yes, even dummies are recognizing the ongoing obesity epidemic. Dummies as in crash test dummies. No, not the musical group that sang "Mmm mmm mmm mmm"...but the mannequins that are the unsung heroes of automobile safety. They sit in cars during safety testing while the cars hurtle against walls and barriers. For years, standard dummies have been 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds. But as CBS News reports, Humanetics, the leading maker of crash test dummies, will be making a heavier (by 100 pounds) and taller (by a few inches) dummy to better represent Americans.

Why is it necessary to make dummies look more like real Americans? Well, in the case of car crashes, size matters. Add worse car crash injuries to the growing list of problems associated with obesity, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, depression, etc. A study, published in the Emergency Medicine Journal and conducted by Thomas M. Rice from the University of California, Berkeley’s Safe Transportation and Research Education Center (SafeTREC) and Motao Zhu from the West Virginia University's Injury Control Research Center, found obese drivers to be up to 78% more likely to die in a car crash compared to normal-weight drivers, based on accident data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Moreover, among obese individuals, the higher the body mass index (BMI) the higher the likelihood of death, with a BMI of 30 to 34.9 associated with a 21% increase in fatality, 35 and 39.9 with a 51% increase, and above 40 with an 81% increase.

Crash test dummies, otherwise known as full-scale anthropomorphic test devices, which is a bit harder to say, like these ones at Ford Motor Company's Dearborn Development Center are supposed to represent "typical" Americans. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Several phenomena could be driving (pun intended) these findings. One is that better overall physical health can help you survive a car crash, while physical ailments can weaken your body's ability to handle and recover from trauma and injuries. Secondly, body weight and size can potentially hamper rescue and medical procedures such as removal from the car, imaging and surgery. Third, body size can change the dynamics of car crashes. In a study published in the journal Obesity, Richard W. Kent and Jason L. Forman from the University of Virginia and Ola Bostrom from Autoliv Research in Sweden, subjected obese and non-obese cadavers to different frontal car crashes and found that the obese cadavers moved around differently during the crashes. Obese cadavers moved forward more before being restrained by the seat belt and experienced more hip movement, which could lead to a greater risk of chest injuries. Finally, car safety features that are designed for a certain body size could be less effective for other body sizes and shapes. For example, being overweight or obese could change where the seat belt rests on the body and how much room is between the steering wheel, the air bag and the body. This last reason is why new dummies are emerging. After all, the body of knowledge has to match the bodies.

Before you start fat-shaming these larger crash test dummies, realize several things. Fat shaming doesn't work. These dummies can't hear you and aren't on social media...unlike other dummies on social media. But also, these bigger dummies (otherwise known as full-scale anthropomorphic test devices) are part of a bigger trend. The obesity epidemic has become a big problem that's caused not simply by individual decision making but by changing systems around everyone, such as what's in people's food, how neighborhoods are constructed, what everyone is doing each day and what people can afford. Unless these systems are recognized and addressed, like the crash test dummies, America will continue to hurtle toward a wall that it may not survive.

I’ve been in the worlds of business, medicine, and global and public health. And these worlds are a lot more similar and different than you think. Currently, I am an Associate Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Executiv...